• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.28 no.11
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• pp.69-78
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• 2012

Conventional numerical analysis for rainfall-induced slope stability has been estimated by separating seepage and stress-strain behavior, respectively. Many researchers' models from commercial softwares and literatures define that partially saturated permeability is the only function of degree of saturation (or matrix suction) and then they do not consider hydraulic-mechanical characteristics for the analysis. However, in practice, the water flow processes in a deformable soil are influenced by soil skeleton movement and the pore water pressure changed due to seepage will lead to changes in stress and to deformation of a soil. The relationship between seepage and soil behavior causes a change of partially saturated permeability as well as saturated permeability with the lapse of time. Instability of partially saturated soil slopes due to infiltration would be analyzed from reduction of negative pore water pressure calculating the process of water flow based on predicted partially saturated permeability. Therefore, partially saturated permeability should be defined by the function of degree of saturation (or matric suction) and porosity. The paper presents the comparison between staggered and monolithic coupled analysis regarding seepage and stress deformation problems. As a result, the decrease in matric suction on soil slope from monolithic analysis is slower than that from staggered analysis.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.30 no.4
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• pp.35-45
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• 2014

Limit equilibrium methods of slope stability analysis have been widely adopted mainly due to their simplicity and applicability. However, the conventional methods may not give reliable and convincing results for various geological conditions such as nonhomogeneous and anisotropic soils. Also, they do not take into account soil slope history nor the initial state of stress, for example excavation or fill placement. In contrast to the limit equilibrium analysis, the analysis of deformation and stress distribution by finite element method can deal with the complex loading sequence and the growth of inelastic zone with time. This paper proposes a technique to determine the critical slip surface as well as to calculate the factor of safety for shallow failure on partially saturated soil slope. Based on the effective stress field in finite element analysis, all stresses are estimated at each Gaussian point of elements. The search strategy for a noncircular critical slip surface along weak points is appropriate for rainfall-induced shallow slope failure. The change of unit weight by seepage force has an effect on the horizontal and vertical displacements on the soil slope. The Drucker-Prager failure criterion was adopted for stress-strain relation to calculate coupling hydraulic and mechanical behavior of the partially saturated soil slope.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.29 no.1
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• pp.135-147
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• 2013

Most of slope failures are triggered by heavy rainfall during rainy season. If the rain keeps on for the season, the water content of the ground increases and its matric suction decrease, and then the safety factor of soil slope gets lower. The change of water table level for soil slope stability dose not describe the behavior of the soil slope in real situation, hence it may be necessary to modify the design standard for slope stability in association with rain infiltration. For correct design, economical construction, and maintenance of a soil slope, unsaturated flow analysis is needed for estimation of slope instability regarding water infiltration and soil behavior on unsaturated soil slopes. The entire soil slope cannot be saturated by prolonged rainfall and wetting band depth (saturated zone) just deepens from slope surface, hence the cause of the shallow surface slide is the wetting band depth depending on rainfall duration and intensity. Therefore, the paper presents the differences between theoretical equation and numerical analysis for wetting band depth on soil surface and its safety factor, and compares the slope stability obtained from unsaturated flow analysis with that obtained from conventional slope stability analysis.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.29 no.7
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• pp.75-89
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• 2013

This paper describes a GIS-based geohydrologic methodology, called YSGWF (YonSei GroundWater Flow) for predicting the rainfall infiltration-groundwater flow of slopes. This physical-based model was developed by the combination of modified Green-Ampt model that considers the unsaturated soil parameters and GIS-based raster model using Darcy's law that reflects the groundwater flow. In the model, raster data are used to simulate the three dimensional inclination of bedrock surface as actual topographic data, and the groundwater flow is governed by the slope. Also, soil profile is ideally subdivided into three zones, i.e., the wetting band zone, partially saturated zone, and fully saturated zone. In the wetting band and partially saturated zones the vertical infiltration of water (rainfall) from surface into ground is modeled. When the infiltrated water recharges into the fully saturated zone, the horizontal flow of groundwater is introduced. A comparison between the numerical calculation and real landslide data shows a reasonable agreement, which indicate that the model can be used to simulate real rainfall infiltration-groundwater flow.